Special General Meeting - Proxy Voting Update

Special General Meeting - Proxy Voting Update.

Dear members,

DBV has received a few direct enquires from members asking about the availability of proxy voting and more recently club Presidents have also made this request on behalf of their members.

Although the option of proxy voting has always been available, previous Boards have not made this available to members, and the current Board continued the accepted practice. However, it seems that there is greater interest in the current matter than expected and people want proxy voting available. Whilst the Board is very pleased to see the number of members interested in the subject of updating the current constitution, and have no objection in principle to allowing a proxy vote, the logistics and practicalities in making this available in the time available is very challenging, especially as Paul who is the only paid employee, is extremely busy with Regatta organisation.

However, the Board does want to give all members the opportunity to have input into this important decision and have obtained the following advice from Landers and Rogers regarding facilitating electronic voting for all members. 

1.       Strictly speaking, an association must expressly permit electronic voting for the purposes of general meetings in its constituent rules, failing which a vote of that nature is technically invalid. While the Act and DBV constitution contain provisions dealing with the use of technology to facilitate holding and voting at general meeting, this only extends to members actually present at the meeting (via technology) and voting at the meeting. Accordingly, the current DBV constitution does not technically permit electronic voting for all members, as an alternative to proxy voting.

2.       Despite this, in our experience there are numerous associations that, notwithstanding this legal technicality, adopt voting methods as proposed in your email (ie all members have the opportunity to vote electronically, irrespective of whether they attend the meeting), without legal challenge. In our view it would be difficult for an aggrieved member to successfully challenge a special resolution approved in this manner, noting the lack of prejudice suffered by the claimant and the fact that DBV's decision merely enfranchises the membership as a whole.

3.       We advise the new Constitution we prepared specifically allows the Board to permit voting by electronic communication at and in relation to general meetings, which overcomes the current issue.

The Board would therefore like to propose that in order to overcome people’s inability to attend the meeting because of time constraints, or technology issues, that all members will be able to lodge an electronic vote through Revsport. As you can see from the above while this is not strictly permitted in the current constitution, there are precedents, and this seems the fairest and most practical way to give every interested party the opportunity to vote. It will also ensure accuracy and confidentiality in the voting process.

We will still hold the SGM on Wednesday night, and I would encourage everyone who can attend to do so, as you will have the opportunity to ask questions before voting.

In order to avoid overloading Revsport, voting will be open for several hours. Logging into a website does not require the same level of internet coverage as a zoom meeting so hopefully this is within everyone’s reach. It also means people could access internet from an alternative location if their internet coverage isn’t sufficient at home.

We would ask that everyone wanting to vote familiarise themselves with logging into Revsport, and know their username and password. We will ask Paul to dedicate some time on Monday and/or Tuesday to helping people with any problems with logging in. However, this may impact his ability to respond to non- urgent matters, so we ask for your patience. 

Voting Process:

1.    A RevSport Survey will be created, and opened at 9pm on Wednesday October 8, 2025. The Survey link will be provided to members within a Newsletter earlier that day. 

2.    The Survey will remain open until 4pm on Thursday October 9, 2025.

3.    The results will be communicated to members via a Newsletter, on Thursday October 9, 2025.

If anyone has an objection to this process, please advise the Board immediately.

Regards, Heather Watts